THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 225 



bank which catches all its rays and is sheltered from the wind, and 

 there practise their singing ; and though it is not possible to make out 

 any particular song, the united voices of so many little choristers is 

 very sweet, and may be heard a long way off. If disturbed, they start off 

 in a whirl, uttering their cry of tweet, tweet. They are very little birds, 

 and the males among those that remain in summer have the red crown 

 and pink breast. I suppose them to be the mountain linnet and the 

 greater redpole. 1 



THK COMMON SPARROW. 



Breeds abundantly in the ruins of lona and elsewhere, of course 

 keeping close to the habitations of man, and is otherwise of the same 

 habits as his city brethren. 



THE COMMON BUNTING. 



All the stackyards and stubble fields abound with the corn bunting 

 in winter ; and in summer his monotonous little song is heard from 

 every stone dyke and thatch-roof shieling, and his nest is often found 

 in the grass. 



THE YELLOW HAMMER. 



Gaelic, Buidheag bhealaidh (bu'eak velai') i.e., the yellowling of the broom. 

 The English is the same as the German Gold-ammer ; and may not bunting 

 be from bunt gay, lively, brisk? 

 Is resident, but not very numerous. 



THE SNOW BUNTING. 



This very interesting winter visitor does not remain with us long at 

 a time, but is blown here by hard gales or driven by unusual frost, and 

 at such times the little flocks or parties that arrive affect the seashore, 

 where they trip about like dotterel on the sand. This is almost the only 

 little land-bird known to be identical in both hemispheres. I have 

 met it wheeling about the frozen surface of Lake Ontario more than a 

 mile from shore, and have seen them (with the thermometer 20 below 

 zero) driving about in large flocks, mingling with the snowflakes 

 which darkened the air, as the bitter blast bellowed over the whitened 

 plain. When man and beast are housed, and even the domestic fowls, 

 with frost-bitten combs and toes, huddle in their roost ; when all 

 manner of beast and bird is either far away in the south, or else in 

 1 We have seen both species in lona in the month of June. ED. 



